Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The Guinness world record for the Fastest electric car is is 487.672 km/h (303.025 mi/h) over a two-way flying kilometre by Buckeye Bullet 2 designed and built by engineering students at The Ohio State University at the university's Center for ...See all stories on this topic ¬ª

If you needed more proof that endurance racing, and not Formula Un, is where the real innovation lies, check this out: Aston Martin will field the first hydrogen-powered race car to compete in the 24 Hours of N?rburgring.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Post race interviews of the M1GP electric races this past weekend by Jeremiah Johnson, and the Juiced Racing electric CB750 taking on the gas bikes at Road Atlanta in the historic series that raced there this past weekend as well. Enjoy! http://ttxgpmatters.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/post-race-interviews-from-april-29-2013.mp3

Sunday, April 28, 2013

I’d add some commentary but I feel it’s better to let these guys represent themselves, and let you take away from it what you will. I will say the chatter about the comparison has been minimal on the forums. I think everyone has a favorite and wants to chest pound for their favorite, but is [...]

The car took its place in the technical inspection today and will hit the sands tomorrow with the other vehicles taking part in this year's General Tire Mexican 1000 rally. This is the first time in the rally's history that an all-electric car has ...See all stories on this topic ¬ª

1,000 miles of desert. 750 pound-feet of torque. 535 horsepower. Top speed of 125 mph. Battery capacity of 82 kWh. Battery pack weight of 1,950 pounds. 60 miles of off-road, pedal-to-the-metal range. Yes, it's a beast of a machine and it's the work of the Strategic Recovery Institute (SRI): a California-based non-profit focused on sustainable [...]

Friday, April 26, 2013

Another video about Ripperton, but this time a sit down interview and some nice detail on how the changes have affected the bike. And then Brammo’s rider Steve Atlas give us another blog post talking about just how great his second test went, and even talks a bit about their new traction control system here. [...]

The KERS system, the result of close collaboration between engineers at Renault Sport Technologies and their colleagues at Renault Sport F1, comprises three main elements:

An electric motor-generator unit (MGU) directly linked to the driveshaft;

Specific lithium-ion batteries; and

A KERS Control Unit (KCU).

Because the Twizy Renault Sport F1 isn't nearly as fast as a single-seater race car, the kinetic energy produced under deceleration is insufficient to charge the KERS' battery. To get round this problem, the engineers at Renault Sport Technologies and Renault Sport F1 developed a system that enables the battery to be charged by siphoning power from the main motor.

The Twizy Renault Sport F1 powertrain. Click to enlarge.

Layout of the powertrain components. Click to enlarge.

This solution gives the driver total independence over how the KERS is used.The driver can choose between two modes for the KERS used for Twizy Renault Sport F1, using the controls located on the steering wheel.

Recovery mode: with this mode activated, the electric motor functions like a conventional generator, drawing power like a dynamo to convert the mechanical energy produced by Twizy main motor into electrical energy. Up to 4kW can be siphoned off in this way to charge the battery while on the move.

Boost mode: the energy recovered using the Recovery Mode can be re-employed whenever the driver wishes by pressing on the button located on the steering wheel. This reverses the process. Instead of serving as a generator, the KERS' motor-generator unit (MGU-K) now functions as a motor to bring a power boost to the principal motor to which it is directly linked via the driveshaft.

The MGU-K fits inside a 10 cm-diameter cylinder and can rev to as high as 36,000 rpm. The maximum power output of the MGU-K is 60 kW (approximately 80 hp). The charging process and the way the stored energy is delivered are controlled by a control unit which is itself linked to Twizy Renault Sport F1's ECU (Electronic Control Unit).

When the system is triggered, the maximum revs of Twizy's motor rise to 10,000 rpm for a top speed of 110 km/h (68 mph).

The KERS is equipped with its own battery capable of very short charge/discharge cycles. The package weighs barely 30 kg (66 lbs), battery included.

Given that the peak revs of the KERS and Twizy's principal motor are 36,000 rpm and 10,000 rpm respectively, the connection between the two was one of the chief challenges of the project. Synchronisation is ensured by a 1:3.6 reducer gear which uses the same drive gear as that of the F1 V8 engine.

The KERS uses a pressurized lubrication system to enable the bearings to withstand peak revs of 36,000 rpm. Meanwhile, in order to prevent the KERS battery from overheating despite the constraints to which it is exposed, Twizy Renault Sport F1 is equipped with water cooling. Both these systems are existing Renault Sport Technologies solutions.

The host of Fully Charged, which is a web-based video magazine, Robert Llewellyn recently took a drive in a Nissan LEAF Nismo RC. And because we basically love every Robert puts out, we thought we would pass the clip along. It is not everyday you get to hear what an EV with no sound deadening...sounds [...]

Drive technology has an electric future - of this Fraunhofer research scientists are in no doubt. At the Sensor + Test measurement fair in Nuremberg from May 14 -16, they will use an electric racing car to present novel solutions for battery management and electronic sensor systems together with an industry partner. The scientists are right on trend, as even FIA, the governing body for world motor sport, federation of the world's leading motoring organizations and organizer of Formula 1, is planning a racing series for electric vehicles.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Wait . . . what? The eRR race season doesn’t start for another 80 days for Europe, and 87 for North America, you might be thinking. No I didn’t get a contact high from hanging out with all those hippy college kids last weekend. This weekend will be the 3rd round of the M1GP, but [...]

So began Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at Monday's press conference announcing Formula E racing was coming to the city. The open-wheel race series will make 10 stops around the world in its inaugural year, with L.A. expected to host a race in ...See all stories on this topic ¬ª

That shadowy concept teased by Renault two days ago has now been revealed and it's a shocker. The Formula One-inspired electric concept that Renault hinted at is as unexpected as they come. The electric Twizy Renault Sport F1 concept, strictly a one-off for now, is radical to the extreme. Equipped with a Renault F1-supplied KERS [...]

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

A London Grad student is doing research on the popularity of electric motorcycles, and how people view them. Whether you like them or not, please give him a hand and take two minutes. They are very painless as surveys go. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/75CPGFC and http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9VQX7Y8 Thank you, ESBK.co

Electric car aims to crack 700km/h speed record Sydney: Come August, and the new poster car for the electric vehicle Venturi VBB-3 will take to the famous Bonneville salt flats, with the aim of shattering its own record. Electric car aims to crack ...See all stories on this topic ¬ª

Monday, April 22, 2013

Yeah, no long analysis or deep insight into Lightning goings on from me, like the last Brammo post. You can listen to my interview with Richard Hatfield that gives you a bit more background on these bikes. I totally didn’t see the scooter coming, but it does look good. I have sent an e-mail to [...]

Saturday, April 20, 2013

World Championship level ICE motorcycle racing is a European-centric sport. Here are some facts for the upcoming 2013 season. First, 61%, or 11 of 18, MotoGP rounds are in Europe. 4 of them, or 22% are in Spain alone. For the first time in history 3 of them are in the US. But given the [...]

We've already talked about how Twitter has changed the way that real-time journalism functions during news events like the Boston bombings, by taking all the editorial activity that usually happens behind the scenes in newsrooms - the speculation, the fact-checking, and so on - and pushing it out into the open where anyone can take part in it. But it's not just Twitter, of course: as we've seen this week, other social platforms like Reddit are al ...

Friday, April 19, 2013

Alright, I’ve been waiting for this news for a while, although this has a twist. Parker, not ICON, is the primary sponsor for Shelina’s and the Empulse TTX’s race effort this year. Both Eric “EBoz” Bostrom and Shelina Moreda will be racing the TTX in the AFM this year, hence the 32 on the forks [...]

Thursday, April 18, 2013

A fun interview with John Marshal of Virginia Tech’s Bolt electric motorcycle race team. We talk a lot about their GP bike they are building for this season on the success of their TTX75 bike from last year. We talk not just about that but elmoto stuff in general. Thank you for your time John. [...]

The new appointment will help the new Formula E follow in the footsteps of the world-renowned Formula One, by securing broadcasting contracts to televise its races. Electric cars the TV stars. With an annual turnover of US$350 million, MP & Silva ...See all stories on this topic ¬ª

Drayson commits to Formula E series Renault has revealed it is keen to get involved in Formula E should the championship launch as intended next year. Organisers of the electric single-seater series have already presented an eight-round calendar, ...See all stories on this topic ¬ª

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

A fun interview with John Marshal of Virginia Tech’s Bolt electric motorcycle race team. We talk a lot about their GP bike they are building for this season on the success of their TTX75 bike from last year. We talk not just about that but elmoto stuff in general. Thank you for your time John. [...]

Well, I don’t have any information other than this folks. But as the press release says they have a new chassis and have been testing it. I have to admit it looks good in the flat black paint job. It looks more like a motorcycle and less like a refrigerator on wheels. In related TT [...]

Not long after the Boston Marathon bombings occurred on Monday afternoon, several Twitter users noted that these kinds of real-time news events illustrate how incredible the service is as a source of breaking news, but at the same time how terrible it is. Sure enough, there were plenty of fake news reports to go around on Monday, from reports of suspicious vehicles to the arrest of alleged perpetrators - just as there were during superstorm Sandy ...

We've written about projects like Matter, which used Kickstarter to fund the creation of a new magazine for science writing, and high-profile bloggers like Andrew Sullivan who go directly to readers for financial support - but could a relative unknown in a small town use crowdfunding to build a business covering city hall and other local news? Joey Coleman says yes. He has done not one but two successful Indiegogo campaigns to raise money to cov ...

Two companies who are leading the way on personalized digital magazines agree that we haven't yet come close to unlocking the power of true personalized content yet. At paidContent Live 2013 Wednesday, Prismatic co-founder and CTO Aria Haghighi said those in the business of helping readers discover new content can't even agree on a definition yet. "We don't all agree on what personalization means. I agree (that it means pointing you to) stuff you ...

The Guardian's expansion into the United States is on track, editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger (see disclosure) said at the paidContent Live conference Wednesday. Rusbridger said that the Guardian's global audience is about 40 million readers, according to comScore data, with one-third of them in the U.S., one-third in the U.K. and one-third in the rest of the world. "It wasn't us waking up one morning saying, 'let's impose The Guardian on these Am ...

With a vast array of content types and devices to consume them, publishers still can't easily decide between using the web or native apps for their wares. Three high profile content providers debated the topic at the paidContent Live 2013 event in New York City on Wednesday and it's clear that digital content will have a home in both native apps and online for at least a few years yet. Jason Pontin, editor in chief and publisher of MIT Technology ...

Think your blog posts on Tumblr are pretty good? Just talk to the people who've turned those posts into book deals. Speaking at PaidContent Live in New York on Wednesday, Tumblr CEO David Karp described the site as a creative platform where users are free to grow an audience and develop talent that has the potential to see success elsewhere, such as the 70 users who turned their blogging skills into book deals. Karp said the company saw three boo ...

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Well, that title is a bit harsh, don’t you think, Richard? Maybe, but there’s a tinge of truth. And, as I work this site like a second job for no pay to get you folks the news, I am seriously done with people/international organizations who absolutely know I exist not sending me press releases. College [...]

Sunday, April 14, 2013

One of the biggest flubs that product teams make is confusing designs that look great with designs that actually work well. It's a simple mistake, but it can have grave consequences: If your product doesn't work well, no one will even care how it looks, after all. The best way I've found to get around this confusion is a technique called story-centered design. The idea is to create a series of narrative use-cases for your product that illustrate ...

Saturday, April 13, 2013

This was supposed to be a podcast special, but in a moment of absolute horror I discovered as I went to edit the 2 hour conversation down to 20-30 minutes, it never recorded at all. It was a great conversation and I will most definitely do my best to get him on again, as I [...]

Friday, April 12, 2013

I interview Felix Lebel of Sherbrook Universities, who is leading a project to build a competitive eRoadRacing race bike. The first in a series of college team interviews for you folks to look forward to. FYI, the commentary is a bit dated, the interview is over a month old. Enjoy! Episode 20 (Full) Interview with [...]

A large capital F is the eye pattern that most people follow when they view your website. Various eye tracking and heatmap studies have confirmed this for years. But still we design sites based on other patterns believing we can buck the trend and get our customers to look at the offer we have for them.

According to the latest numbers from the Association of American Publishers, revenue for ebooks for some of the biggest categories grew by 41% in 2012. Ebooks now account for 23% of trade publishing revenues.

The Hybrid Hydrogen system comprises a hydrogen fuel rail, storage tanks and proprietary engine management system. This enables flexibility in the control of the combustion process according to each particular driving situation; either pure hydrogen, ...See all stories on this topic ¬ª

Thursday, April 11, 2013

I interview Felix Lebel of Sherbrook Universities, who is leading a project to build a competitive eRoadRacing race bike. The first in a series of college team interviews. Editor’s Note: When I started editing and producing these teasers for Richard, I promised him I wouldn’t “put words” into the mouths of his interview subjects by [...]

Ted was out first guest on the podcast. Glad to see him getting back on an Elmoto. Hollywood Electric’s team now boasts not one but two AMA professional riders. This is going to be good. For Immediate release Phoenix (April 11) – AMA Daytona Sportbike Racer Ted Rich will race a Zero Electric Motorcycle, sponsored [...]

If you're going to race, you may as well race with the best. Electric motorcycle company Amarok is entering Pikes Peak, the uber-challenging hill climb, for the first time. To help them get the best possible run up the hill, they've enlisted 6 time Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Champion Greg Tracy.

The Canadian builder is running Agni motors, a controversial choice nowadays. This video discusses the development of the project. There's quite an interesting dialogue on the subject over at egrandprix.com where Agni's Cedric Lynch and Amarok's Michael Ulharik answer questions.

When I agreed to join the Hollywood Electrics team for the endurance race we did last weekend, Harlan (team owner and owner of Hollywood Electrics) tried to talk me into joining the rest of the team, all Pikes Peak veterans. It sure looks like fun, and definitely something to add to my 2014 dance card. There also promise to be some hot electric cars there as well, as reported here. If you're anywhere near Colorado on June 30th, don't miss this race.

Enjoy this little video of Greg Tracy in action:

Full press release from Amarok Racing follows:

For Immediate Release:

April 9, 2013 - Amarok Racing, the competition arm of motorcycle design specialist Amarok Consultants, is proud to announce that 6 Time Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Champion, Greg Tracy, will be racing the Amarok P1A at this year's Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

Pikes Peak is the second oldest race in the United States behind the Indy 500. With 156 turns, no guardrails, sheer drop-offs and an elevation that increases more than 5,000 feet in 12.4 miles, to a finish of over 14,000 feet at the summit, Pikes Peak is challenging proving ground for the Amarok P1A.

"It is truly exciting to be racing with Amarok. After talking with Amarok co-founder Michael Uhlarik, I knew this was a team of innovators who have pushed the limit building an electric motorcycle that I believe can set a record at Pikes Peak. I have been honoured to race for the best factory team, for Ducati, and honestly I had planned that my next Pikes Peak pursuit would be in an enclosed vehicle." said Greg Tracy.

As one of the elite Team Hot Wheels drivers, Greg Tracy, captured a Guinness Book of World Record when he performed the Hot Wheels Double Loop Dare at the 2012 X Games. Tracy is also one of the top stuntmen in Hollywood. Greg has been providing stunts for movies and commercials since 1991, in blockbuster movies such as: Act of Valor, The Avengers, GI Joe, Wanted, Talladega Nights, The Fast and Furious and in The Bourne Ultimatum for which Greg won the elite World Stunt Award. He has also won the Baja 1000, raced Formula 2000, Indy Cars and has gone over 210 mph on a motorcycle at the Bonneville Salt Flats during several World Record Attempts. At last year's at Pikes Peak, Greg and his teammate were the first motorcyclists in history of race up the famous mountain in under ten minutes with the Ducati Multistrada.

"We are absolutely thrilled and very proud to have Greg ride for us." said Amarok co-founder and chief designer Michael Uhlarik. "As a small, family run operation, our main objective is to work with people we like and who share our values. Amarok is about making up for big, by leveraging craft. After talking with Greg I felt like we had a lot in common."

Tracy was connected to Amarok after the team's promotional film "Why Less is More" appeared in a write up in My Life at Speed, one of the largest motor sport culture websites.

"I have always been intrigued by the Makers Movement and how alternative energy will impact my life and ultimately, my children's lives. We need to be aware of the guys who are representatives of where our futures lie. Pikes Peak has always been about pushing the limit, showcasing new technologies with the best racers against the most extreme environment. When you combine all of our passion for the race, new technology with a couple of guys building one of the most interesting electric motorcycles in 140 year old barn...well, I knew I just wanted to be part of this program. " Said Greg Tracy.

Amarok and Tracy will be racing the P1A, an advanced electric motorcycle concept demonstrator developed over the past three years. The P1A boasts a hand crafted aluminum monocoque design that dramatically reduces weight and improves handling. "The 147kg (325lb) Amarok P1 concept is about making the best handling motorcycle on the planet. There are electric bikes with much more power, but we want to own the corners. The 156 turns of Pikes Peak represent to us the best opportunity to prove our core belief that in vehicle design, you can do more with less." Said Michael Uhlarik.

The ongoing story of Amarok and Greg Tracy will be followed up on MyLife at Speed, in Cycle Canada magazine and on Amarok Racing's Facebook page and Twitter account.

About Amarok

Amarok Consultants is a leading motorcycle industry consulting firm. Founder, award winning motorcycle designer Michael Uhlarik, has served major international OEMs including Yamaha, the Piaggio Group, Bombardier and numerous others to deliver bespoke design, product planning and R&D support. In 2010, Michael co-founded Amarok Racing with Kevin O'Neil, with the purpose of developing the paradigm shifting, all electric P1 experiment.

Amarok Racing is generously supported by major sponsors from many areas of motor sports, including industry leaders (listed below) and fans across Canada, the US and Europe.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

A new extension to the PRISMA guideline on reporting systemic reviews and meta-analyses (types of studies that analyse information from many studies) will help authors to give a more robust summary (abstract) of their study and is detailed by an international group of researchers in this week's PLOS Medicine.

Jason Merkoski was a founding member of the Amazon team that launched the Kindle. He no longer works at Amazon, and in a new ebook, Burning the Page: The Ebook Revolution and the Future of Reading (Sourcebooks, ebook $9.99) he discusses how the Kindle came to be, the features it (and other e-ink readers) lack, and what he imagines the future of digital reading will look like. While Burning the Page often reads more like a series of rambling blog ...

The concept of selling digital ads is basic enough - offer up a piece of screen and invite brands to buy it. But for publishers, the ad tech industry can feel like a mix of quantum physics and witchcraft. Instead of simple transactions between publisher and buyer, digital ad sales rely instead upon a bewildering degree of middlemen who offer competing versions of a lengthy technology product. Ad executives say, for instance, that there are now ei ...

Barnes & Noble has rebranded its digital self-publishing platform, PubIt!, as Nook Press, and has added some new features that aim to make self-publishing an ebook faster and easier. The company aims to compete with Amazon's KDP and other self-publishing tools. Nook Media's primary new feature is a tool that allows authors to write, format and edit, and preview ebooks directly in a web-based platform (see image at left). "It's an end-to-end s ...

Saving something to read later, in Instapaper or Pocket, doesn't mean that you'll ever actually get around to reading it. A company called Blackstrap aims to fix that: It will print all of your read-later articles into a $15 book. "If an article deserves a little time, then Blackstrap it: choose the ones you want to linger over and we'll print, bind and send them to you, to enjoy undistracted," the company says. Blackstrap's Tyler Fonda tells the ...

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

In September, 2012, Facebook became the third largest country on the planet. In just eight short years, Facebook intrigued more than 1 billion monthly active users and over 680 million daily users to access the social media site from their mobile product. In 2008, Facebook launched its iPhone application. Since that time, over 300 million photos have been uploaded to Facebook.

Plenty of automakers and coachbuilders are building limited-production electric supercars with half-million dollar price tags, but Birmingham City University and Westfield have released this video of their $21,500 EV kit car racing on a track...and boy does it look fun.

The future of electric vehicles may not be decided by mass adoption by urban populations, but by the performance of EVs on the racetrack. If electric vehicles can gain popularity on the race track, then it is only natural that mass adoption will follow. But so many exciting and fun EVs have huge price tags. But not the Westfield i-Racer.

More of a "blank slate" than a true race car, the i-Racer was first introduced back in 2010 and can (supposedly) be had for just $21,500 and can be outfitted with a pure electric, hybrid, or tried-and-true gas engine setup. The car in this video uses an electric drivetrain, making it almost unsettingly quiet as it races along the track in this video. Range is estimated to be just 55 miles, which is enough for some (but certainly not all) races.

Should you opt for the electric drivetrain, two electric motors drive the rear wheels to the tune of just 132 horsepower but a whopping 550 ft-lbs of torque. 440 pounds of lithium-phosphate batteries push curb weight to over 1,700 pounds, but that's still insanely light, and as the video shows, the extra heft does nothing to slow this EV kit car down.

As you read about here, I was invited to participate in the 6th annual M1GP 8 hour endurance race, as a member of Team Hollywood Electrics. As the first (and only) female on the team, my race entry fee was waived, so I couldn't pass up an opportunity to race a brand-new electric bike for free! Sustainable Solutions Partners supplied us with a solar generator, as well as a gas generator. We had about eight batteries at our disposal, and the solar panels were enough to charge two at a time, albeit a bit more slowly than the gas generator.

The boys work on getting the solar charger all hooked up

Here's the full race report from team owner Harlan Flagg:

The 8 Hour Endurance Race was a fun opportunity to show the entry level Zero XU in a competitive environment under continuous use. Although we were disappointed that a technical issue prevented us from completing the entire 8 hours, the roadblock was not the batteries or charging capacity.

The solar charger provided a few kW of charging capacity but we had a generator to supplement our charging needs. We did not want to fall short on the charging so we had more than enough charging power. A quick estimate put our energy consumption at about 1kW every 10 minutes (6kW every hour) and we had one generator that was able to produce 6kW, another at 2kW and the solar charger was able to supply about the same as long as the battery bank was charged.

Hollywood Electrics supplied the Zero XU and prepared it for the race with Zero S rims with upgraded front brakes. The extra bits were removed and crash protection installed. The rear axle sliders and hand protectors proved useful, causing only superficial damage to the bike for the most part, until a hard crash bent the forks.

After a minor low side, Jeff pitted the bike and a failure to follow our established procedure of turning off the bike at pitting time led to an unrecoverable failure. It was not the removal or replacement of the batteries that caused the failure but it did cause the detection of the failure and ultimately the bike refused to operate, protecting itself from further damage, until the failure was corrected. With limited preparation time, we did not have all the parts available to repair the bike and decided that after 141 laps and nearly 4 hours of riding, we were satisfied with what we had accomplished and learned a lot from the experience.

The bike performed very well, on par with the rest of the competitors riding their ICE bikes. Fastest lap of the day was a 1:11 by Brandon Nozaki Miller. Here's a video of our pitstop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vngxQY32si4

Jeremiah Johnson came out from Florida to race with us and his input as an experienced endurance racer was invaluable. He had this to say after the race: "It was a fun event and I'm really glad I was able to honor Kenny Anderson like this." This M1GP race was held in honor of Kenny Anderson, a young racer who recently died. He had won this race in 2010 and truly loved racing. Kenny's father was on hand and told us how grateful he was for the memorial, and for the money we were raising for the family.

Jeremiah, Brandon, and Jeff (still with his helmet on after crashing, like a true team player!) do their best to adjust the forks, but quickly find out the internals are so badly bent the forks won't rebound.

Waiting for my second turn, which never came, I enjoyed the race from the prime seat of my very own Zero FX. Because it still had the stock wheels and tires, I went and played in the dirt a bit after we learned the race bike was dead. It's fun riding a bike I can't flat foot, but I will need it a bit lower if I'm to do any proper flat track riding on it. It might be entirely too tall for that, but that won't stop me from trying. This is the bike I'll race if I choose to continue in the M1GP series. It all comes down to money, after all.

Despite having never ridden a Zero XU, or even visited Grange raceway, a very technical kart track, I had a blast riding the race bike once I found my way around the track. It's easy to ride, lightweight, and handles well. The S brakes and wheels worked really well, so we were able to run wider tires, giving us more confidence on this track.

An array of enemies, from professors to Google to the Supreme Court, are dragging the U.S. towards copyright nihilism that resembles Russia - at least this seems to be the view of Authors Guild President, Scott Turow, whose latest screed entitled "The Slow Death of the American Author" claims the country is betraying its writers. Turow's piece, which appeared in this weekend's New York Times, could have been a rallying cry to support American lit ...

The Westfield sports car company isn't widely known out of its UK home, but the firm has a long history of light-weight sports cars, many based on the classic Lotus 7 shape. Squint hard enough and the Westfield iRacer isn't dissimilar, with a long, narrow body and outboard wheels. But that's where the similarities end. That's because the iRacer is...

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Found this on Facebook Saturday. As I previously reported, even though Amarok has announced they will be running in the 2013 Pikes Peak Hill Climb, they are yet to be listed on the entry list. I figured it was simply a paperwork drill keeping things from being official, and that may very well be true. [...]

Friday, April 5, 2013

As long as I don’t get sued for trademark or copy right I think I’ll keep this as the title I use anytime I go off into speculation land. First off, today’s primary focus is on Brammo. It has been my long held belief since my first interview with Brammo’s Brian Wismann that they were [...]

This study demonstrates that writing therapy resulted in significant and substantial short-term reductions in post traumatic symptoms (PTS) and comorbid depressive symptoms. Writing therapy is an evidence-based treatment for PTS, and constitutes a useful treatment alternative for patients who do not respond to other evidence-based treatments.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

I saw this first on their webpage, but they put this year’s racing schedule (“subject to confirmation”) in their newsletter as well. Note that it includes the two AFM races they will be attending and the FIM WSBK round at Laguna Seca that I reported a month ago. Yeah, this is a hit-n-run post. Brammo [...]

They are a busy little shop over at Hollywood Electric, and now they have assembled an “all-star” team and will be piloting a 2013 Zero XU (hence the video above) in the 8 hour event. You may note that the XU has two quickly removable battery packs. I asked Susann Schlick (aka @Pinkyrcar) and she [...]

While electric vehicles for the masses have gotten off to a slow start, every other week there seems to be a new ultra-high-end electric sports car for the world's wealthy elite. Right now the Rimac Concept_One electric supercar is on a tour of the Middle East, and to prove its worth, Rimac set up an impromptu drag race. With a Ferrari. Bet you know where this is going.

With four electric motors producing a combined 1,073 horsepower and 1,180 ft-lbs of torque, the Rimac Concept_One is one of the most powerful vehicles in the world, gas or electric. With a 0-60 mph time of just 2.8 seconds and a silent-but-deadly powertrain, the Concept_One is currently showcasing its capabilities to the sheiks and oil barons of the Middle East.

Of course the Middle East is a hotbed for exotic car purchases, and one needn't look hard to find a parking lot full of Ferraris and Lamborghinis, which are almost common place. That said, we wouldn't call a Ferrari 458 Spider with a 540 horsepower 4.5 liter V8 a "common" car, though the Rimac electric supercar dispatches it with ease in a parking lot drag race. Just watching this electric supercar breaking its rear tires loose is relentlessly enjoyable.

Electric supercars may soon displace Ferraris and Lambos as the chariot of choice for the wealthiest among us, and Rimac is positioning itself as a literal leader in pure electric speed for a new century.